BATON ROUGE — Hunter Gomez struck out nine over 8 1/3 innings as LSU defeated Alabama, 6-4, in a Southeastern Conference game Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium.
The Tigers (39-16, 19-9) maintained their lead over Mississippi State in the SEC Western division, and pending the outcome of the Bulldogs’ game at Auburn, could end up as division champions by the end of the day.
If Mississippi State wins, LSU can still clinch the title with a Bulldog loss on Sunday or a win over the Crimson Tide (35-20, 15-14). If State wins its final two games and LSU loses Sunday, the Bulldogs win the title by percentage points.
The series finale between LSU and Alabama is set for 1 p.m. Sunday, and will be televised by Guaranty Sports.
The Tide got out to a 2-0 lead in the second on Casey Lambert’s two-run, two-out double, but the Tigers quickly answered back in the bottom of the third with four two-out runs of their own.
Jeremy Witten and Ryan Theriot had back-to-back singles, then Cedrick Harris singled up the middle to score Witten. Brad Cresse then hit a three-run homer to right to put the Tigers ahead 4-2.
The Tide pulled within 5-4 on Jeremy Brown’s two-run single, but that would be as close as Alabama would get. The Tide would put two runners on in the ninth, but Shane Youman struck out Darren Wood, and Weylin Guidry fanned Brent Boyd to end the game.